Supreme Court voids taxi working hour pact aimed at dodging minimum wage

The Supreme Court ruled that agreements between taxi operators and unions to set scheduled working hours are invalid if they serve merely as a formality to evade minimum wage laws.

In a decision announced May 14, the high court found that Company A's agreement to maintain a two-hour scheduled workday was a deliberate attempt to circumvent Article 6, Paragraph 5 of the Minimum Wage Act, which was revised on March 21, 2008. The ruling stated that because the fixed daily quota under the lump-sum payment system requires significantly more time than two hours to earn, the arrangement created an artificial discrepancy between scheduled and actual working time designed solely to inflate the nominal hourly rate above the legal floor.

"Even if labor and management freely agreed to the shortened hours, such a pact cannot override the normative power of mandatory laws intended to protect workers," the court said, emphasizing that the primary purpose of the agreement was to avoid statutory compliance rather than reflect genuine operational needs.

The justices established that when such an evasion is proven, previous valid clauses from collective bargaining agreements or work rules regarding working hours generally apply. In cases where no prior valid provisions exist, courts must interpret the employment contract by supplementing the parties' intent based on objective standards of fair interest adjustment rather than subjective claims.